Police ask public for video from Portman protest

Columbus Police Chief Kim Jacobs wants the division to review any video of Friday's protest in which 16 people were arrested.

In a Facebook video, Jacobs asked anyone with video to contact police so they can determine whether officers acted properly when responding to the protest in the lobby at Huntington Plaza, 37 W. Broad St. Downtown, where Republican Sen. Rob Portman's Columbus field office is located.

Police are facing scrutiny after a video went viral that some say shows an officer tipping a woman out of the wheelchair and then walking away. The video shows Pittsburgh resident Alisa Grishman, who has multiple sclerosis, falling out of a wheelchair as an officer holds the bar on the back of the chair.

When asked if she thought the officer dumped her out of the chair, Grishman told the Dispatch, "I don't know. The video very clearly looks like I've been tipped out."

Jacobs acknowledged the video might make it appear that way. But she said other video shows protesters in wheelchairs intentionally falling to the floor as officers approached. "So we do have some evidence that that might have been a tactic used by protesters," she said.

Jacobs said the officers knew people were recording them with their phones, that there were cameras in the lobby and that some officers were wearing body cameras.

She said police want to view more video from the incident. Anyone with video can email iabdesksgt@columbuspolice.org.

Jacobs said officers responded to the building at the request of firefighters, who had been denied access to the elevators for some time while responding to a call about chest pains from someone on the 11th floor. No patient was ever found.

"The firefighters did inform all of the protesters that they were responding to a medical emergency," the chief said. Once building security ordered the protesters to leave, officers told them they would be charged with criminal trespass if they stayed. After three warnings, "They all agreed they were going to be arrested, and they understood that."

The protesters were there to push Portman to continue his stated opposition to the Republicans' health care legislation to replace the Affordable Care Act, also called Obamacare.

During his weekly call with reporters Tuesday, Portman said he was “sorry” that 16 out-of-state protesters were arrested, but that they had blocked access to the building. He said the problem became particularly acute when someone in the building called 911 during the protests to complain of chest pains, and emergency personnel were unable to access the building. He referred other questions to the Columbus Police Division.

Jessica Wehrman of the Dispatch Washington bureau contributed to this story.